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With Galerie Kahnweiler, Paris (no. 1444, photo no. 5047), until 1914; French government, sequestered Kahnweiler stock, 1914-23; 4th Kahnweiler sequestration sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 7-8 1923, no. 291; private collection, Paris?, or Galerie Simon [1]; Alfred Flechtheim (1878-1937), Berlin, private collection, by 1933 [2]; with Galerie Simon, Paris, by 1935 (no. 8915, photo no. 5017) [3]; sold to A. E. Gallatin, New York, by October 1935 [4]; bequest to PMA, 1952.
1. Bought together with two other works by Gris. The Gazette de l'Hôtel Drouot did not record buyers for the fourth Kahnweiler sale. See also note 4.
2. Zürich, Kunsthaus, "Juan Gris," 1933, no. 36, lent by Alfred Flechtheim, Berlin. According to the catalog, apparently in the dealer Flechtheim's private collection and not for sale at this point. Flechtheim had a significant personal collection of works by Gris; however, this painting is not listed in the inventory of Flechtheim's private collection in Ottfried Dascher, "Es ist was Wahnsinniges mit der Kunst": Alfred Flechtheim; Sammler, Kunsthändler, Verleger, Wädenswil, 2011, "Die Private Sammlung Alfred Flechtheim," pp. 423-425.
3. Flechtheim was closely associated with the dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, (1884-1979) who provided him with paintings. Upon the closing of his galleries in Düsseldorf and Berlin in November 1933, Flechtheim apparently sent much of his stock to Kahnweiler's Galerie Simon in Paris (see Nancy Yeide, AAM Guide to Provenance Research, "Flechtheim", p. 223; and Pierre Assouline, An Artful Life: A Biography of D. H. Kahnweiler, 1884-1979, New York, 1990, p. 231-232).
4. In a letter to Gallatin dated October 12, 1935 Kahnweiler states that after the Hôtel Drouot sale in 1923 the painting had been bought by someone in Paris (from this sale?) and that it had belonged to a small (private?) collection in Paris, from which he bought it back through an intermediary, who did not disclose the name of the collector (Gallatin Papers, New York Historical Society, microfilm). He makes no mention of Flechtheim.